Recommended Carrier for Speaker Shipments


Hi,

Does anyone have experience with shipping speakers across country?

My speakers weigh 103 pounds each and they are in perfect condition. I wish to have them upgraded by the manufacturer located in CA. I am in CT.

I am very nervous about shipping them, based on some of my experiences shipping other audio components.

What's the safest way to ship speakers (with cost also being a secondary consideration)?

Thanks!
davemon
Swklein, you hit the nail right on the head! Congrats on your speaker recognition skills! (Vandy 3 -> 3A sig)
Hi
I bought a pair of acoustat tens with amplifiers. packing was OK but not robust. Every piece of wood was broken(fedex).
fortunately all I wanted was the amps, mangled but repairable.

My advice is pack very solid. The package needs to bounce well at 4 feet and land on the bottom. After you pack it, Take a very large oversize box or sheet of cardboard wrap it round and round and then rope it together with filamented tape, do not cut down to size, press down every inch of tape. The piece de resistance is an additional layer of clear 3M tape.
PS: do not buy tape at discount places like sams club.
The bubbbles in the tape are a sign of old age or poor quality. Fresh tape is clear with no bubbles. Target rules for fresh battery's and tape.

good luck you will need it.

mike
Bax Global is no better than the rest. I had 200 lb.speakers in the factory wooden crates, with all the inner protective
material as well. They hit the crate with a fork lift tip.The pressed wood just popped back out--givin the weight of the contents. Didn't see it before I signed; They wouldn't pay---like most of the other shippers. You need a lawyer to fight their lawyers.
Hi, Dave:

I think you made a post last week asking essentially this same question regarding shipment of your Vandy speakers to the factory for upgrade. I responded to your post, but want to reiterate for others who may read this thread that the most important factor here is to ship your speakers in their Vandersteen boxes. Did you contact the Vandy factory to ask their advice on shippers? If not, I suggest you do so.

Best regards -- SDC
I recently used Roadway to ship two Quads from Seattle to a friend in Cleveland. Since I expect that shippers will attempt to drop anything just to test the laws of gravity, I custom built two wooden crates complete with foam padding. The crates are reusable, too. I think I spent about $400 on wood, special packing foam, screws, and stencils. The stencils were used to spray paint “this side up” and “fragile” all over the crates. It took me 18 hours to build the crates. Anyone who is an “expert” carpenter can probably do the same job in half the time. I digress. My friend claims that the speakers arrived with no damage (not even to the crates). Roadway ships via truck and the truck driver who picked up the crates was very careful (at least while I was watching). The cost to ship was another $300. Piece of mind comes with a high premium these days.

Caveat emptor: Roadway completely screwed up billing and over billed us. Three times.

--Paul